'Beowulf" is the epic poem dating from the 8th or 9th century that every high-school English Literature student has learned to dread. With good reason too — try getting your head 'round lines like "I ween with good he will well requite offspring of ours, when all he minds that for him we did in his helpless days of gift and grace to give him honor." Yet while it's considered lofty literature today, back in the day when it was still a recited poem, "Beowulf" was pop culture, its story of a battle between warrior and monster essentially an overblown bar brawl.
So it isn't really fair for anyone to cry "sacrilege!" over director Robert Zemeckis' cranked-up version of the tale in his film, "Beowulf." His screenwriters, Neil Gaiman (of the abysmal "Stardust") and Roger Avary ("Pulp Fiction"), sure take some liberties with their source, but not as many as you might suspect. The story arc is quite similar, and actually deeper on one level. The dialogue sometimes strays a bit too close to "Monty Python" territory for its own good, but some B-movie laughs are here for those who are looking.
"A B-movie version of 'Beowulf?'," I hear you groan. But really, with human-eating trolls and dragons, what other version would there be? Well, yes, there was Scandinavian director Sturla Gunnarsson's "Beowulf & Grendel" just a mere two years ago, and people looking for the dark, twisted, disturbingly violent version should go there. Zemeckis, known for milder fare such as "Forrest Gump" and "The Polar Express," gives us a popcorn movie, with some pretensions to seriousness in its themes.